Disabilities, people with prevalence

The quality of life experienced by people with MCS is shaped, to a great extent, by the level of awareness of environmental health issues where they live and work. Some are recipients of workplace accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act others are harassed and ostracized at work, or fired from their jobs. Some disabled by chemical exposures in the workplace receive workers compensation the majority of chemical-illness claims are denied. Some cities, schools and other institutions have adopted fragrance-free policies and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs to reduce chemical barriers and dangers in public places others still resist despite all the prevalence studies and research indicating that MCS is a serious threat to public health. 

OA is the most prevalent of the rheumatic diseases, and is responsible for enormous disability and loss of productivity. Prevalence increases with age, and radiographic data show that OA at some skeletal site occurs in the majority of people over 65 years of age, and in nearly everyone over 75 years of age. Despite intense epidemiologic study, the exact prevalence of OA is unknown, owing to the uncertainties and variations of diagnostic definition and reporting mechanisms. Another confounder is that many patients with radiographically apparent OA do not have symptoms that lead them to medical care. 

On the basis of available information, however, the prevalence of childhood blindness in the United States is estimated at 0.6—6.1 per 1000 children.22 Because testing infants for visual impairments is difficult, more than 80 percent of cases of childhood visual impairment are diagnosed at ages greater than 2 years.23 In the year 2000, the prevalence of vision impairment in 8-year-old children in metropolitan Atlanta was 1.2 per 1000. Approximately one-half to two-thirds of these children with vision impairment also have one or more other developmental disabilities.24 According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the prevalence of hearing loss in children 8 years old in metropolitan Atlanta in 2000 was the same as the prevalence of vision impairment 1.2 per i,ooo.2S Children born with vision or hearing deficits are, in short, more common than people think. 

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